Hope, Patience, and Prayer

Earlier this week during one of my morning devotionals I was reading Romans 12:12 in which Paul was writing to the church in Rome. Paul was encouraging them to be strong and faithful through the persecution they were experiencing. "Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer." Interestingly, Paul could have possibly been encouraging the church in Rome while he himself was sitting in prison enduring his own set of trials and tribulations. During that same devotional time, I turned to Psalm 23 and as I read verse 4 it brought me back to Paul's guidance to the church in Rome. It almost sounded like Paul was providing a commentary on David's faith.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:4. Although I am walking through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be "patient in my affliction" and I won't fear adversity or affliction because I am "rejoicing in the hope" I have in God. As David proceeded he wrote that he wouldn't be afraid because he knew God was with him. How did David know God was with him? Because King David was "persistent in prayer". 

 David prayed for strength, for comfort, for forgiveness, and for guidance. Paul prayed those same prayers over a thousand years later, and we can confidently pray those same prayers today. Our strength is found in our hope in God alone. We gain confidence in that knowledge through prayer and through perseverance. Paul wrote to the church in Rome to encourage them to have hope, to rest in that hope, and to continue to talk to God through their adversities. The good news today is that we can do the same thing. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus tells us to, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The only way to ask is through prayer, the path to seek Him is through reading His word and then applying it to our lives. And the only way to knock on God's door is to know where He lives. As we build our relationship with God, we begin to understand more and to see his plan for this life He has given us to live. 

If prayer, faith, and hope were good enough for David and for Paul, don't you think those same traits would serve you well? The world changes, but in so many ways it definitely stays the same! Hope, patience, and prayer, same God, same path to find Him, never changed and never will!

Coach Carter